Snowden ‘aiding our enemies,’ former CIA chief of staff says

Americans continue to demand answers about the secret NSA surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden, but the leaking of classified documents pertaining to United States intelligence has some people up in arms for entirely different reasons.

Jeremy Bash, the former chief of staff for then-CIA Director Leon
Panetta, told Politics Confidential that Snowden may be aiding
America’s enemies by going public with top secret information
about expansive surveillance programs operated by the NSA.

When Snowden took credit for leaking National Security Agency
documents to The Guardian, he said, “I can't in good
conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, Internet
freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this
massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.” But
while members of Congress and the American public at large have
voiced similar concerns over spy programs done in vast secrecy up
until now, Snowden has also attracted a fair share of opponents
for sharing information that was never meant to be divulged
publically.

Speaking to Politics Confidential this week, Bash said the US
government is worried about what else Snowden knows and fears
further documents will be leaked to the press.

“If a foreign government learned everything that was in Edward
Snowden's brain, they would have a good window into the way we
collect signals intelligence,” Bash said.

“I think he is very dangerous, because he has information in
his head, he’s making threats [and] he’s on the loose," Bash
added. "We don't know what other documents he copied, and we
don't know who else he's talking to."

Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist who published Snowden’s
leaked documents for the Guardian last week, has since hinted
that further disclosures are on the way.

When Snowden’s identity was released last week, the Guardian said
he was last known to be residing in a hotel in Hong Kong. In the
days since, however, Snowden has seemingly slipped through the
cracks and now remains the target of an investigation condoned by
the White House and Justice Department alike.

Should Snowden begin speaking up, Bash said he fears what
information America’s adversaries could learn of. Snowden has
already accused the NSA of conducting dragnet surveillance of
American citizen’s phone habits using Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act court orders to collect statistics on millions
of residents every day, as well as another program called PRISM
alleged to eavesdrop on conversations done over the biggest
Internet companies in the world. He’s since suggested that the US
has long been committing cyber-crimes against China, a claim that
if true could put a series strain on American foreign relations
amid repeated accusations about the East’s own hacking
operations,

“What might have fallen into the hands of a foreign
government, perhaps the Chinese?” asked Bash. “One of the
things you see now is he is out there making threats that the
Chinese government or other governments are going to learn
about.”

Snowden’s mindset, Bash insisted, is clear to American
authorities: “I’ve got more secrets, and unless you lay off me
I’m going to spill those secrets.”

“I think he could do tremendous damage,” said Bash, who
also called Snowden “delusional” and “very
dangerous.”

“He’s not a whistleblower, by the way, because a whistleblower
actually wants the rule of law to be enforced. He copied
documents and he made a run for it. He may be actually aiding our
enemies.”

US President Barack Obama and the heads of the NSA and Federal
Bureau of Investigation have all condemned Snowden’s actions in
recent days, with FBI Director Robert Mueller saying during a
Capitol Hill testimony on Thursday, “These disclosures have
caused significant harm to our nation and to our safety.”
Mueller added that the FBI and Department of Justice are taking
“all necessary steps to hold the person responsible” for
the leaks.

Meanwhile, though, others have hailed Snowden as a hero. “We
should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn
Greenwald who see injustice being carried out by their own
government and speak out, despite the risk. They have done a
great service to the American people by exposing the truth about
what our government is doing in secret,” former congressman
and presidential hopeful Ron Paul said this week. “It’s a
shame that we are in an age where people who tell the truth about
what the government is doing gets into trouble.”

Snowden is expected to be indicted shortly and charged with,
among other likely counts, violating the Espionage Act of 1917.
Army Private first class Bradley Manning is currently being tried
in a military court for violating the Espionage Act as well,
along with the military charge of “aiding the enemy.” In the
military, a conviction of aiding the enemy carries a maximum
sentence of death. The 'Stand with Edward Snowden' petition has collected
over 800,000 digital signatures. The aim is to collect 1 million
voices, within 48hrs, calling on Obama to “crack down on
PRISM, not Snowden”. “It will send a powerful statement
that he should be treated like the brave whistleblower that he
is,” reads the petition.